The Power 50

Oh, the trappings of power... The mannish, lesbian Queen Christina (1626-1689) was officially declared 'King of Sweden'; Caligula roamed his palace at night, ordering the sun to rise; Clay Aiken's concert tour rider demands that his food contain no mushrooms, coffee, mint, chocolate, or shellfish. Not all gays in power in 2007 exercise such megalomania, but the truth is that influential gays are becoming increasingly more visible and more powerful. Although power is often subjective and defies a ready definition, we determined that to earn a spot on our Power 50 list, candidates have to be gay and American or working primarily in the United States (sorry, Elton) and have significance in our culture at large. To work out each person's power ranking, we used a weighted system of criteria, awarding scores based on (1) political clout; (2) pop-culture resonance; (3) individual wealth; and (4) current personal profile. Whether they're raking in millions, advancing the gay rights movement, entertaining us with snarky celebrity gossip, or selling us $2,000 cashmere sweaters, we're confident that these VIPs have exerted considerable sway over how we think, look, and act.

1 David Geffen What does $4 billion-plus buy for a Hollywood entertainment powerhouse? Your name on UCLA's medical school; great American art (Pollock, de Kooning, Johns); and headline-making influence over Democratic presidential politics: When Geffen supported and later dissed Hillary earlier this year, the fur flew between the candidates' camps. 'If you're his enemy, you might as well kill yourself,' Howard Rosenman once told The New York Times. And to think it all began in the William Morris Agency mailroom.

2 Anderson Cooper Anointed an 'emo-anchor' by The New York Observer for his coverage of Hurricane Katrina, the rise of Anderson Cooper heralded the simultaneous demise of the Dan Rather-Tom Brokaw era of dry efficiency. Despite an unfortunate side trip into reality TV in 2001 as host of ABC's late, unlamented The Mole, his instincts have served him well: His annual salary at CNN was reportedly doubled this year, from $2 million to $4 million.

3 Ellen DeGeneres With over 2.4 million viewers on a daily basis, The Ellen DeGeneres Show is an essential stop for any celebrity peddling their wares, and her breakthrough gig at the Oscars only elevated her Hollywood stature. The fact that seemingly everyone loves an out-and-proud lesbian makes her powerful'that and the $65 million she's reportedly worth.

4 Tim Gill Gill is the country's biggest gay political donor and 'the nexus of an aggressive new force in national politics,' according to a major story in The Atlantic. After founding and making his fortune at publishing software giant Quark, Gill moved on to philanthropy; in January he launched the Gill Action Fund. His guiding strategy: Giving to many key local and state candidates is more cost-effective than large donations to a few national candidates.

5 Barney Frank When the Democrats took over control of the House and Senate this year, the outspoken, popular, and frequently quoted Massachusetts Democratic congressman assumed chairmanship of the House Committee on Financial Services. See the extended profile on page 58.

6 Rosie O'DonnellThe View is much better since O'Donnell took over as moderator last fall. Her opinionated stances and battles with the Donald have fanned a huge ratings rise. Plus, her R Family Vacations have elevated the world of gay travel.

7 The New York Times Gay Mafia Richard Berke, Ben Brantley, Frank Bruni, Stuart Elliot, Adam Nagourney, Stefano Tonchi, Eric Wilson Yes, there really is a queer cabal in the Eastern elite media, and it works on West 43rd Street in New York City. Style editor Tonchi, style reporter Wilson, assistant managing editor Berke, national correspondent Nagourney, and advertising columnist Elliot can set agendas in their areas of expertise. In the case of restaurant critic Bruni and theater critic Brantley, the fate of fledgling enterprises rests in their hands. This is one group you don't want to run into in a dark alley.

8 Marc Jacobs One of the most recognizable names in fashion, Jacobs helms his own label and is also artistic director for Louis Vuitton. His empire extends beyond clothing (including his acclaimed spring shows in New York, London, and Paris) with new fragrances for Coty, home decor for Waterford, and watches. For his opulent holiday ball last December, he arrived disguised as a pigeon.

9 Andrew Tobias He's not just a personal finance guru (The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need) and memoirist (The Best Little Boy in the World), he's the treasurer of the Democratic National Committee and a major fund-raiser for the party.

10 Brian Graden As president of entertainment for MTV Networks' music channels, Graden oversees the programming on those arbiters of youth culture MTV, CMT, MTV2, and VH1. Since taking the reins at MTV in 1997, MTV has been the number 1 basic-cable network in the advertiser-coveted age 12-24 demographic, and after adding VH1 to his responsibilities in 2002, ratings have risen there an astonishing 95%. He championed the ever-expanding Logo'now in over 26 million homes'and serves as its president as well.

11 Jann Wenner The 61-year-old founder of Rolling Stone magazine has traveled the quintessentially baby-boomer path from counterculture to worldly success. As his company's flagship magazine moves into its fifth decade, the media mogul continues to shape Us Weekly into a very different kind of pop-culture tastemaker.

12 Andrew Sullivan An old-school conservative who backed Kerry in 2004 and an HIV-positive avowed Catholic advocate for same-sex marriage, Sullivan appears contradictory at first. A frequent guest on HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher and NBC's The Chris Matthews Show, the consistently controversial Sullivan, his books, and his blog, the Daily Dish, on The Atlantic Online, are read by lefties and righties alike.

13 Suze Orman The personal-finance TV personality and best-selling author is worth more than $30 million. Interviewed in The New York Times Magazine earlier this year, she admitted it's 'killing' her that when she dies her partner 'is going to lose 50% of everything I have to estate taxes. Or vice versa.' Which is why we all need to find The Courage to Be Rich'the concept, if not her book.

14 Joe Solmonese As president of the Human Rights Campaign, one of the country's largest gay rights organizations (650,000 members), Solmonese is the go-to guy for media sound bites on hot-button topics like same-sex marriage, Grey's Anatomy star Isaiah Washington's use of the f word'and a now-infamous Snickers commercial.

15 Fred Hochberg Son of tchotchke queen Lillian Vernon, Hochberg is a major Democratic Party donor and the dean of Milano, the New School for Management and Urban Policy. He served as President Bill Clinton's acting head of the Small Business Administration, a cabinet-level rank.

16 Christine Quinn She's the first woman and first out person to hold New York City's second most powerful post'speaker of the city council. If she continues on her current trajectory, she could break those same precedents as mayor.

17 Perez Hilton The alter ego of 28-year-old snarkmeister Mario Lavandeira is the subject of both lawsuits and fawning profiles. He has reignited the outing debate (witness Lance Bass and Neil Patrick Harris) and has set his sights on Dominic Monaghan, Queen Latifah, and Ricky Martin. But his true power lies in the fact that his frequent targets, like Sienna Miller ('Sluttyienna') and Lindsay Lohan ('Firecrotch'), still beg for his good favor.

18 Scott Rudin At this year's Oscars, The Queen, Notes on a Scandal, and Venus all got nods; they also all had Rudin as either a producer or executive producer. Coincidence? Not when your r'sum' includes The Hours, Clueless, The Truman Show, In & Out, and The First Wives Club.

19 John Aravosis How does one follow up StopDrLaura.com? The founder of AmericaBlog.com single-handedly launched campaigns against Mary Cheney's hypocrisy (Dear- Mary.com), the White House (outing Jeff Gannon), and Microsoft (it quickly reversed its embrace of antigay legislation). See the extended profile on page 60.

20 Sheila Kuehl After becoming the first out person to be elected to the California legislature in 1994, Kuehl went on to become the first woman speaker pro tempore of the assembly in 1997. Now a respected state senator, Kuehl is a champion for women's reproductive rights, gender nondiscrimination, victims' rights, environmental preservation, and LGBT rights. And where the country's most populous state leads, other states follow.

21 James B. Stewart If you know anything about finance, you know Stewart, the former Page One editor at The Wall Street Journal, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting on insider trading and the 1987 market upheaval helped shape the era's news coverage. Author of eight books, including best sellers DisneyWar, Blood Sport, Den of Thieves, and Blind Eye, he is a regular contributor to SmartMoney.com and The New Yorker.

22 Nick Denton Former business journalist Nick Denton got to the blog party late (in 2002), but the snark-infested waters of his empire (14 sites and counting, including Gawker, Fleshbot, Wonkette, and Defamer) have proved remarkably inviting, generating 100 million'plus page views a month by early this year. Though cagey about exact figures, he was happy enough to confirm, when pressed, that he was worth 'millions.'

23 Tom Ford With the April launch of both his highly anticipated menswear collection and 9,600-square-foot flagship store on Madison Avenue in New York City, design giant Tom Ford continues to charge into his post-Gucci future. A guest art director stint for Vanity Fair and a bared-buttock photo spread in W magazine have also kept his notoriety factor high.

24 Nate Berkus The Chicago-based interior designer became a household name when Oprah Winfrey began to regularly feature him on her show. Now with a line at Linens 'n Things, a best-selling book (Home Rules), and numerous appearances in O magazine and on Oprah's radio show, he's ready to accessorize the world.

25 Adam Moss The former wunderkind editor of The New York Times Magazine (and later 'cultural czar' of the paper), now pushing 50, has reinvented New York magazine as the stylish, smart, playful weekly the city always deserved, notching up a string of awards, including seven nominations in this year's National Magazine Awards. It kills us, however, that his employer still doesn't offer domestic-partner benefits, making New York less progressive than Rupert Murdoch's New York Post.

26 Jim Nelson When Art Cooper left GQ in 2003 after 20 years in the top post, then-executive editor Jim Nelson stepped up with aplomb, boosted circulation (even as the cover price rose), and reinvigorated the magazine's writing and photography. He's now so identifiable that he was the ostensible target of a 'Gay or Magazine Editor' chart in Details.

27 Lorri L. Jean She's the Grover Cleveland of queer leaders: Like the 22nd president, she's served split terms'as CEO of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Center, the world's largest LGBT organization (budget: $40 million). After a six-year stint that began in 1993, she went to Washington and whipped the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force into financial shape before returning to Los Angeles four years ago.

28 Adam Rose Motivated by antigay legislation, Rose, the head of New York City mega-real estate developer Rose Associates, helped unseat incumbent Republican congresswoman Sue Kelly by writing a check for a cool half-million bucks to Majority Action, a political action committee, which put him among the top 20 donors to federal 527s during the 2006 election cycle.

29 Annie Leibovitz Leibovitz defined the look of Rolling Stone, then Vanity Fair. Her iconic images of Demi Moore nude and pregnant, Whoopi Goldberg in milk, and Yoko Ono and John Lennon the day he was murdered made her one of the few household names in photography and earned her 'Living Legend' status bestowed by the Library of Congress. Last year the Brooklyn Museum launched the retrospective 'Annie Leibovitz: A Photographer's Life, 1990'2005.'

30 Simon Halls & Stephen Huvane These two publicists-partners at PR giant PMK-HBH'represent such headline talent as Ang Lee, Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Aniston, and Gwyneth Paltrow, in addition to out actors Nathan Lane, Alan Cumming, and Neil Patrick Harris. That sound you hear is Us Weekly calling every five minutes.

31 Bryan Lourd As a partner at talent agency CAA, he's responsible for overseeing the careers of A-listers like Robin Williams, Julianne Moore, Warren Beatty, and Robert De Niro. He also has three $15-million-per-movie (plus profit sharing) clients: Brad Pitt, Drew Barrymore, and Reese Witherspoon. And he throws a kick-ass, must-attend Oscar party that has outshone Ed Limato's in recent years.

32 Bryan Singer If you want your movie to make over $100 million, then Singer is your man to direct, having helmed X-Men, X2, and Superman Returns. He also serves as executive producer on Fox's top-rated drama House. Currently pending are the long-awaited The Mayor of Castro Street and, of course, another Superman flick.

33 Jonathan Burnham After bagging a crop of celeb-driven best sellers for Miramax Books, Burnham became senior vice president and publisher of HarperCollins and was charged with classing up the joint. Last year Burnham brokered the $1 million deal for Anderson Cooper's book, Dispatches From the Edge.

35 Robert Greenblatt Since 2004'when The L Word premiered'Greenblatt has been president of entertainment for Showtime Networks, where he has overseen such hits for the premium channel as Weeds, Sleeper Cell, and Dexter. The network just premiered The Tudors, starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers (budgeted at over $38 million, it's one of Showtime's most ambitious projects). Now airing is the TV version of the public radio show This American Life.

36 Chi Chi LaRue N' Larry Paciotti, LaRue is the drag Martha Stewart of gay smut, directing videos and running Rascal Video, Channel 1 Releasing, and now All Worlds Video. Named Best Director at the 2006 GAYVN awards, LaRue decries the 'condom-optional' policy of other companies while simultaneously setting the tone for queer sex appeal.

37 Dan Mathews As vice president of PETA, responsible for the group's most controversial campaigns ('I'd Rather Go Naked Than Wear Fur') and statements (he jokingly lauded Andrew Cunanan for getting 'Versace to finally stop using furs'), Mathews is a PR master, enlisting Pamela Anderson, P!nk, and Paul McCartney as spokespeople. His picaresque new memoir, Committed, recounts growing up gay, poor, and punk.

38 Neil Meron & Craig Zadan The Storyline Entertainment producing pair'who together have earned six Oscars, five Golden Globes, and 11 Emmy awards'are credited for reviving filmed musicals, from the big screen's Chicago to small-screen versions of Gypsy, Annie, and Cinderella. Hairspray (starring John Travolta in drag) will likely continue their winning streak, while their (nonmusical) The Bucket List already has Oscar buzz. The upcoming The Mayor of Castro Street (with Bryan Singer attached to direct) further bolsters their queer creds.

39 Ingrid Sischy Editor of Interview since 1989 and friend and confidante to the stars, Sischy is the kind of old-fashioned editor who runs her magazine as an oligarchy. Warhol created the mold for the celebrity mag when he founded Interview in 1969, but it was Sischy who kept it going as her territory was increasingly co-opted by other magazines like Us Weekly and Vanity Fair. These days it's still often the first stop on a celebrity's rise to fame, but they never forget to return the favor when they're at the top.

40 Marc CherryDesperate Housewives' creator and guiding force has helped ABC regain its footing with his quirky dramedy. While some producers are given big deals to develop a slate of new projects, ABC just secured a deal with Cherry (rumored to be worth over $15 million) to keep Housewives happy through 2011.

41 Carolyn Strauss HBO's president of entertainment oversees the cable network's groundbreaking series. She helped nurture shows like Sex and the City, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, and Entourage. And this summer John From Cincinnati (from Deadwood's David Milch) joins her slate.

42 Irshad Manji A fearless advocate of reform in Islam'she's received death threats and had to bulletproof her Toronto home'she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum for Project Ijtihad, an Internet project to revive Islam's tradition of dissent and debate. Her new documentary, Faith Without Fear, traces her journey through the Arab world and Europe as she challenges Islamic traditionalists.

43 Jodie Foster The widely respected producer, director, and two-time Oscar-winning actor's talent and intellect are beyond debate, but mention her in a room of out lesbians and watch the sparks fly. Foster's production company, Egg Pictures, has produced critically acclaimed independent films (including The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys); she continues to headline big-budget blockbusters and was 2005's highest-earning actress ($27 million), according to Forbes. Look for her with Robert De Niro in Sugarland and Terrence Howard in The Brave One.

44 Christine Vachon A renowned producer in the world of independent cinema, Vachon (who has also penned two books on Hollywood) and her partners at Killer Films, Pamela Koffler and Katie Roumel, have brought audience and critical faves like Velvet Goldmine, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Far From Heaven to the big screen. Now airing is their TV adaptation of public radio's This American Life for Showtime; up next are Todd Haynes's Bob Dylan flick, I'm Not There, and Tommy O'Haver's latest, An American Crime.

45 Andre Leon Talley A self-made man, Vogue editor at large, and fixture on the front rows of runway shows for the last 25 years, Talley is a seriously connected fashionista. A prot'g' of legendary Vogue editrix Diana Vreeland, he continues to guide many up-and-coming designers, like Proenza Schouler and Trovata, into the spotlight.

46 Hilary Rosen Under Rosen's leadership the Recording Industry Association of America won major legal battles limiting trade of copyrighted music, making her public enemy number 1 among college students. Since leaving the RIAA in 2003 she has been a pundit and blogger, and launched Berman Rosen Global Strategies, a digital media consulting firm, as well as OurChart.com, a lesbian social networking site.

47 Matthew Marks While Marks's stable of artists is enviable for any young gallery owner, it was the deal he clinched to represent Jasper Johns'arguably the preeminent living American painter, and certainly the one whose work gets the highest prices'that put Marks, 44, on the map. In 2005, Marks presided over the first exhibit of Johns's new work since his 1996 retrospective, and in 2006 Johns's False Start sold for a whopping $80 million.

48 Benny Medina The talent agent and producer was tabloid fodder in his 2003 legal battles with then-client Jennifer Lopez. But no matter; he engineered Mariah Carey's remarkable comeback (she's number 6 on Forbes's list of the richest women in entertainment), and he's got Tyra Banks on the roster now.

49 Mitchell Gold Gold has seen annual revenue increases of about 20% since 2000 (compared to 3% industry-wide) for the furniture company he and business partner Bob Williams started in Taylorsville, N.C. Their products are sold at Crate & Barrel, Restoration Hardware, and Pottery Barn, and Gold and Williams are active and vocal supporters of LGBT political causes.

50 David Kuhn For years Kuhn was known as Tina Brown's right-hand man, serving as the star editor's top deputy at The New Yorker and Talk magazines. Now he's a publishing powerhouse literary agent. His high-profile deals include a reputed $1 million contract for 'Deep Throat' FBI agent Mark Felt (movie coming soon) and a $650,000 advance for first-time novelist Dana Vachon (Mergers and Acquisitions). But he managed to make time for a brief appearance in the upcoming Bernard and Doris'about heiress Doris Duke and her homo majordomo.